


A Tropical Christmas

by LauraEMoriarty



Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-08
Updated: 2018-01-08
Packaged: 2019-03-01 22:42:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13304877
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LauraEMoriarty/pseuds/LauraEMoriarty
Summary: Thanks Lena for giving this a once-over, and Tracy— I hope you love this. <3





	A Tropical Christmas

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tlcinbflo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tlcinbflo/gifts).



Dorothea Shepard glances down at the long pool, the water sparkling in the sunshine. It is a hot day, even the wind is hot and stirs the grass beneath her feet. She hasn’t had a Christmas at home in years, the last one being just before she had been assigned to the Normandy SR-1. In fact, she hasn’t been back home in a decade. For reasons she had never articulated— going home just hadn’t been too high a priority for her, there had been nothing to go home to— nothing but an empty beach shack in Byron Bay.

 

“Hey, Dot!” James calls out to her, already treading water as he waits for her to dive in.

 

“I’m coming,” Dot returns, a smile crossing her face as she toes off her flip-flops and removes the towel from around her waist. “Still haven’t beat you in a race to see which of us is the new Ian Thorpe.”

 

She backs away from the pool, far enough away that her feet meet the edge of the hot concrete, and then the grass. Pausing to gauge the distance, she takes off at a run, tucking her arms around her knees as she jumps into the pool with a massive splash. Water rushes up through her nose, and as she surfaces, she sneezes.

 

James laughs.

 

“You’re gonna have to do better than that, Lola. Especially if you want to win the competition later. Esteban and I have a running bet that you’ll be last…” He doesn’t get to finish his sentence as Dot splashes him.

 

“Aww, James.” A wide smile crosses her mouth. “You’d think that after the hell we’ve been through, I deserve a win…”

 

“Maybe,” James laughs again, swimming towards her with powerful strokes. “But still, you’ll have to dive from the high one.”

 

Dot shakes her head as she treads water, before diving under and doing an underwater summersault, the water going up her nose and down her throat. She emerges, shaking her head as she swims back towards the stairs— and her towel.

 

“Don’t forget the cricket match on the lawn after lunch,” she calls over her shoulder, picking up her towel from the grass. She wraps it around her waist, and puts her wet feet into the hot flip flops, biting back a curse as she stumbles.

 

Inside the house, she heads to the fridge, pulling out her pavlova and her Christmas prawn cocktails. The house is decorated in festive green tinsel and gold beads, strung from the mantelpiece above the wood heater. In the hot Australian summer, several years after the end of the Reaper War, she takes a moment to appreciate everything she has.

 

Her hard-won life has not come without sacrifices. She remembers the losses on this warm summer day— where chairs sit empty, where people who should’ve lived to see the end of the war died in senseless sacrifice and death. Those people who should be sitting at her kitchen table, drinking glasses of white wine with ice cubes in it. The ghosts of Christmases past, present, and far into the future are with her in her kitchen. But she sighs, and heads to the bedroom, discarding her sodden flip flops in the kitchen.

 

Beneath her feet, the floorboards are soft and warm. She walks up the long hallway, and smiles at the Christmas tree peeking out from the corner of the living room. There are wrapped boxes beneath it, but her biggest present is yet to come. It will be exciting to give James this news, and she hopes he likes it. The engagement ring on her left hand sparkles in the sunlight, as she opens the door to her ensuite.

 

She hears James entering through the back door, and hears it slam shut a few seconds later from a gust of wind. Smiling, she strips out of her bikini, and turns on the shower.

 

“Lola?” He calls, and all Dot can do is giggle.

 

“In here,” she replies, smiling. “You’re welcome to join me..”

 

“Nah, I’ll just get distracted if I do that—I better check on the stuff in the barbecue. I think I smell burning food…” James calls back, and Dot lets out another giggle.

 

“It’s not burning, it’s _caramelising_ ,” she calls, unable to resist teasing him.

 

The very first time she’d met James, she’d fallen for him— head over heels, love-at-first-sight, giddy with the knowledge that no other man could possibly be the one for her. Their relationship had developed slowly, going from jailer to lover over the course of the Reaper War. In the months that’d followed the invasions of Earth, she had come to rely on his judgement, his hard-earned wisdom, and her relationship with him had developed. After the triumph of winning back the Quarian homeworld of Rannoch, in the moments after taking down the Reaper on foot, they had kissed.

 

It still makes her smile to think of it, even after all the disasters and triumph. Once again, she glances down at her engagement ring, as she turns off the shower and steps out, reaching for her towel. She pads back to their bedroom, and sees the framed photo of them—the first one taken of them after the war. They are smiling, their arms wrapped around one another’s waists, heads resting together in profile.

 

The memory still fills her with warmth.

 

She dresses quickly, pulling on a fresh bikini and a loose kaftan, leaving her long dark hair down to dry in the heat. Padding through the house, she reaches the tree, where the tiny gift is waiting for James to open it. A smile crosses her face once again as she thinks of how much they have both longed for this, longed for their own family, longed to be together, and now they would have it all.

 

“So, happy Christmas,” James says, leaning in the doorway of the living room. Dot picks up the tiny box, and crosses the room towards him.

 

“Here’s your present,” she tells him. “I couldn’t wait until after everyone got here to give it to you then.” The box sits between them, on Dot’s palm, as James takes it from her.

 

He looks at her, his brown eyes full of love and warmth, as he rests his other arm across her shoulders. A hush falls over the room as James opens the little box, and Dot bites her lip in anticipation.

_Baby Vega. Due June._

 

“You’re—-“ James says, and Dot nods.

 

“Now you understand why I couldn’t wait,” she admits, biting her lip.

 

“This is— Dot, this is amazing!”

 

An expression crosses his face, as he takes in the news. He reaches for her now, and spins her around, his strong hands on her waist, her arms coming to loop around his neck. He kisses her, and she knows there are no words needed now. They will have the family they both long for, a family of their own.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks Lena for giving this a once-over, and Tracy— I hope you love this. <3


End file.
